Wise, Michael

1648-1687

English composer of effective anthems and services; born in Salisbury. He studied under Henry Cooke and was one of the first of the children to enter the Chapel Royal after the Restoration, being admitted in 1660. Three years later he became the layclerk of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, and in 1668 was appointed organist and master of the choristers of Salisbury Cathedral. In 1675 he was made a gentleman of the Chapel Royal, but upon the death of Charles II., in 1685, he was suspended. Shortly afterward he was made almoner and master of St. Paul's Cathedral. He was killed in a brawl with a watchman. His compositions of churchmusic are particularly fine. Some of his anthems, as, Awake Up, My Glory; Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord, and Awake, Put on Thy Strength, and others, have lost none of their beauty with age and use.